Last week, we had the privilege of visiting the Malaika (angel in Swahili) Initiative, a wonderful free daycare facility for disabled children founded and run by an amazing woman fondly known as Mama Grace Malaika (Angel). We distributed food hampers to all the mothers and grandmothers, along with washable, reusable sanitary kits made by our students for the moms and teenage girls, washable, reusable diapers also made by our students, and adorable skirts and dresses our students make as part of their training, out of vibrant East African prints. There was a lot of joy when we brought out the skirts and dresses. Most of the moms could never afford to buy African print dresses for their girls in the market. We promised to come back soon with more of our students’ handiwork and more reusable diapers, sanitary kits, and, of course, food hampers.

Last Friday, we had the privilege of being visited by a physician from Central America, Dr Dianna Spencer, who was visiting Kenya for two weeks. The purpose of her short trip was to visit the elderly, disabled, and needy in as many clinics in Nakuru as her host could arrange.  Dr Spencer had the huge task of individually examining all twenty-eight of our students. The process went very smoothly, thanks to help from my RN friend from the US, Elizabeth Newsome, who acted as PA to Dr. Spencer, recording the girl’s vital statistics before handing them over to the doctor. Apart from a couple of health issues that we have begun to address, most girls’ time spent with Dr. Spencer was very reassuring, learning that their health concerns were a normal part of becoming a woman. Most of our girls, who come from rural parts of the country, have never visited or been examined by an actual doctor.